NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS TRIBULUS is the new name given to the Bulletin of the Emirates Natural History Group. The group was founded in 1976, and over the next fourteen years, 42 issues of the Bulletin were published. The revised format of TRIBULUS permits the inclusion of black and white and colour photographs, not previously possible. TRIBULUS is published twice a year, in April and October. The aim of the publication, as for the Bulletin, is to create and maintain in standard form a collection of recordings, articles and analysis on topics of regional history and natural history, with the emphasis focussing on the United Arab Emirates and adjacent areas. Articles are welcomed from Group members and others, and guidelines are set out below. The information carried is as accurate ss the Editorial Committee can determine, but opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. Correspondence and enquires should be sent to: The Editor, TRIBULUS, Emirates Natural History Group, P.O. Box 2380, Abu Dhabi - U.A.E. Editorial Board: H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak a1 Nahyan, Patron A.R. Western, Chief Editor, J. N. B. Brown, P. Helbe~: The plant motif above is of the genus Tribulus, of which The animal motif above is of a tiny golden bull, there are six species in the UAE. They all have pinnate excavated from the early Second Millennium grave at leaves, yellow flowers with free petals and distinctive Qattarah, AI Ain. The original is on display in AI Ain five-segmented fruits. They are found throughout the Museum, and measures above 5 cm by 4 cm. country, except in coastal sabkha. Manuscripts should be typed, on one side only, and double-spaced, and may be submitted in either English or Arabic. A short abstract should precede the article, with the address(es) of the author(s) at the end. For Arabic contributions, a short summary in English, of not more than 200 words, should also be supplied. Photographs may be submitted and should be either glossy black-and-white prints or colour slides, which should be clearly captioned. Line drawings and maps should be in black ink on strong white or translucent paper. References should give the author's name, with the year of publication in brackets, and with the list of articles, showing title and publisher, in date order. Scientific names should follow customary nomenclature in Latin, while the English and, if appropriate, available Arabic names should also be supplied. TRIBULUS Vol. 2.1 April 1992 Contents PAGE Editorial ............................................................................................................................2 Fossil Sea Urchin Tests found In the U.A.E. .................................................................3 by Carolyn Lehmann The Birds of AI Ain Zoo and Aquarium ..........................................................................5 by Mohammad Ali Reza Khan Butterflies of the United Arab Emirates........................................................................ 10 by J.N. B. Brown The Asciepiadaceae (Milkweed) Family In the U.A.E. ................................................. 11 by A. R. Western New Finds at Tell Abraq ................................................................................................. 15 by Peter Hellyer Botulism In water fowl in the U.A.E. .............................................................................18 by U. Wernety and J. Haydn-Evans Notes and Queries ..........................................................................................................20 Palaeontological Studies in Abu Dhabi; Ammonite found; Long-Legged Buzzard Nest; Whalesharks; Sooty Gulls on Qamein Island; Occurrence of the Diadem Butterfly; Birds Extinct in the Emirates; Local Bird Names; Local Coin Hoards; Ivory Burned; Short Notes. Book Review ...................................................................................................................26 "The Pre-Islamic Coinage of Eastern Arabia" Recorders' Reports and Programme of Meetings for July to December 1991 ........... 27 . Notes and Queries (in Arabic) .........................................................................................31 New Finds at Tell Abraq (in Arabic) ............................................................................... 33 Editorial (in Arabic) .........................................................................................................35 Contents (in Arabic) .........................................................................................................36 (Cdour Illu8trations wlll be found between Page8 18 and 19, and are included with support from the Union National Bank). Cover iiiustrations: English : A view of the Wadi Hail, Fujairah (P. Hellyer) Arabic : The edge of desert and mountain, Idhn, Ras a1 Khaimah (A.R. Western) ------------------------------------------------------------. The Editorial Board of TRIBULUS and the Committee of the Emirates Natural History Group acknowledge, with thanks, the support of the Group's Corporate members, a full list of whom can be found on Page 29, without whom publication in this format would be impossible. We also acknowledge the support and encouragement of our Patron, H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, the U.A.E. Minister of Higher Education. TRIBULUS is published for circulation to members of the ENHG, and is also available for subscribers overseas or through the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. Details on request. Published by the Emirates Natural History Group, P.O. Box 2380, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Printed for the ENHG by Emirates News, (AI lttihad Press and Printing Corporation), P.O. Box 791, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Editorial News earlier this year of the discovery in Oman of what judging from pottery evidence. More research is may be the ancient city of Ubar reminds me of John obviously needed to prove that the site is indeed Ubar, MacRae's article in E.N.H.G. Bulletin No. 10 (March but there is no doubt that it was connected with the 1980). There he relates the account of a pilot named frankincense trade, and that trade was flourishing across Raymond O'Shea, based at Sharjah in 1944-45, who Arabia from its source in Dhofar 2-3,000 years ago. claimed to have found the ruined city of Qara, or Qarah, Another tantalising piece of evidence comes from the some 28 kilometres south of the Liwa. O'Shea's journey fact that the settlement seems to have falled into a by jeep and camel via Buraimi, Tawi Numayriyeh and shallow underground cavern around 400 A.D., at which the Liwa can now clearly be seen to be a figment of his time it was abandoned and left to the shifting sands. imagination as he piles on inconsistency after This particular event is also referred to in the Arabian inconsistency. The site of his Qara has never been Nights stories and also in the Koran, which relates that reported since 1945, despite being in his own words the city of lrem (Ubar) in southern Arabia was punished being a mere ten miles east of a populated oasis of the by Allah for the sinful and unrepentant lives of its same name. His description of certain hills and citizens. Radar readings of the geological formations at settlements, too, do not match their known equivalents. Shis'r confirm the collapse of the site some 1600 years It seems that O'Shea is just one of that large number of ago. people over the centuries who have been entranced by an El Dorado of Arabia, and that fact and fable have The results of proper archaeological excavations are merged inextricably. keenly awaited. It is interesting that the discovery of Ubar at the village The sands of Arabia still cover a vast amount of of Shis'r, several hundred kilometres from O'Shea's archaeological and palaeontological material. Local 'find', is in the Qara Hill range of Oman's Dhofar region. Bedouin who cross the edge of the Empty Quarter on The 1991-92 expedition was the result of modern their way to hunt in Yemen have shown us pictures of scientific research dating back to 1984 when the space permanent water holes where they report the existence shuttle Challenger took a number of high-definition of quantities of scattered inscribed pottery of unknown photographs of Southern Arabia. This technique had provenance, while the Group's own archaeologists over already been exploited by mineral-mapping concerns the years have found ample evidence of stone tools of at and for tracing ancient water courses beneath Arabia least proto-Neolithic age. and the Sahara, but this is the first time it was used to On the palaeontological side, Peter Whybrow reports in look for ancient tradts and trade routes. A combination this issue on his recent work in the Western Region, of literary legend and careful examination of likely tracks while Carolyn Lehman reviews some of the UAE's fossil homed in on an area on the edge of the Empty Quarter marine fauna, the echinoids and Peter Hellyer reviews some 150 kilometres north of Salalah. Could this be the work at one of the UAE's key archaeological sites, at ancient road reported by the explorer Bertram Thomas Tell Abraq. in 1931 on his epic camel journey across the southern Arabian sands? His own guides assured him that this In keeping with the objective of TRIBULUS of providing was indeed the road to Ubar,. swallowed up in the reports on a broad range of topics, Dr. Reza Khan writes dunes. Thomas did reach Shis'r water hole, where he on the birds of the AI Ain Zoo, the largest in the Middle described the ruins of a "rude fort" which he estimated to East,